I Hope You Dance!

This last summer held one of my greatest joys as a mom. Mark, one of my first-born sons married a beautiful, godly, young woman. Everyone in our family had a role in the wedding; my husband performed the ceremony, Mark’s twin brother was his best man, and my other two boys were groomsmen. Me? I looked on with tears and pride, then enjoyed the mother/son dance. When Mark asked me what song I wanted to dance to, without hesitation, I responded, “I Hope You Dance,” by Lee Ann Womack. Of my four boys, Mark and I have the most similar personalities; adventurous yet cautious, capable, and controlled. As we danced, I told him I loved him and that I longed for him to live freely as God’s child. The words to the song rang true: “I hope you never lose your sense of wonder … never fear the mountains in the distance … when you get the chance to sit it out or dance… dance.” As his mom, my deepest longing for my son is to experience the freedom of living as God created him to be loved, forgiven, chosen, redeemed, blessed, and holy.

My love, hopes, and dreams for my children are not unlike that of most parents. If as imperfect human beings we can have these longings for our kids, how much more does our perfect, holy, Heavenly Father desire for us?

Slowly read through Ephesians 1:3-14, noting the words that God uses to describe YOU, his precious child. What words stand out to you? Do you recognize God’s deep love, his immeasurable grace, and the fact that he chose YOU? Do you live like it?

Verses 11 and 12 in the Message say it this way: “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

The phrase “in Christ or in him” is used eight times in these 12 verses. We can live freely in Christ as God’s chosen because that is how we were designed to live! What an amazing truth!

Choose one of the words from this passage to focus on this week. Ask God to help you to believe the truth and then live it. He hopes you dance!